Don’t think for a moment that talk and chatter don’t lead to perceptions.
In radio, the talk for the past few weeks (few years?) has been about layoffs in highly visible radio companies.
And while cutbacks are still only rumored, smaller employee counts have become the norm in radio. And it continues to be a part of radio management and corporate conversations. So while broadcasters pare their payrolls and health care obligations by cutting staff, the competition is moving in a very different direction.
And as radio continues to struggle to understand why youth matters when it comes to creating stations that are relevant to teens, the bigger challenge has to do with attracting America’s youth for broadcasting jobs.
Here’s Pandora’s point of view, and it sends a message to young people about their culture, their workplace, and their vision of the future. These are issues that radio is facing right now today – not down the road, not tomorrow, not in 2018.
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It’s three minutes of vision, passion, the customer experience, and their statement on where “radio” is going. And it speaks the language of Gen Y – Millennials – what they want from their careers and at-work environment. Pandora has done their homework – the video is loaded with buzzwords and messaging that are cleverly crafted to attract enthusiastic, motivated, and creative young people.
The experience is much different when you visit most broadcast company websites when searching for jobs and careers.
You’re 24, smart, fresh out of school. Where do you want to work?
Radio can do better, and will need to do so in order to remain a competitive workforce environment in the coming years. We’ve been through a similar process at jacAPPS as our mostly Gen Y employees require a different at-work experience. We have modified our thinking and approach in order to better address a changing world. Later this year, we’re moving to a different office space that will reflect the changing nature of younger workers and their needs.
Many broadcast clusters offer fun, interesting workplaces – the chance to connect with communities and the people who live right there in everyone’s hometown. Broadcasters all have vision statements about service, content, and sales, but it’s sure hard to find much of that on search engines and company websites – the places where young people go to research job opportunities.
We’ve talked a lot about why radio brands haven’t gotten the memo about video. And the same can be asked of radio’s biggest and best companies. Prospective employees react to visuals. They want prospective employers to paint a picture – to show what success looks like in their chosen field. A well-crafted video that shows real employees enjoying their broadcasting jobs, serving communities, and connecting with consumers isn’t as difficult or expensive as writing, directing, and shooting the next Superman movie.
When I got into radio decades ago, this was one tough business to break into – especially in the Top 30 markets. Back then, broadcasters could be rest assured that there was a constant line around the building consisting of people dying to work for their stations. Today, too many are still operating with these same suppositions about personnel supply and demand. That ship has sailed.
Turning this around will take more than just messaging and perception. But both go a long way toward attracting great talent to the business. Every major company in radio is more than capable of doing the necessary research, building a great strategy, and a compelling story, and then producing the media to effectively convey and market it.
It’s a different world. There’s not an endless supply of great people who want to work here.
Radio needs to step up its game.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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the strong radio stations that have live air talent, highly visible in the community will trump PanBoring. Voice trackers and Seacrest afternooners.. you’re in trouble
Just being live does not make you local. And there are “live and local” stations that don’t sound any better than voicetracked ones. It’s all in the execution, the approach, and how stations go about connecting with their local communities. Thanks for the comment.
I agree with everything here. I keep the thought of what I would do if I was 24 and breaking into this business close to my heart everyday, and of course it would be all about interfacing radio with video and social media to the point where they are all one seamless brand.
If your a snowboarding company that wants to gain market share by selling to your core, you don’t hire a suit, you hire Shawn White or someone that lives and understands that lifestyle. If your Schwinn bicycles, and you want to gain market share, don’t hire a CEO from a company that knows nothing about bicycles or what is important to the inner circle of that lifestyle. Radio is so guilty of hiring people who only manage debt service and have sent the passionate radio artists packing because they ‘don’t get it’.
The irony is you don’t have to be 24 to understand that. You just need a company culture from the top down that understands it.
Ron, solid comments about what matters. As Pandora is demonstrating, attracting passionate people about their bread and butter – music – is a smart way to reach out to young prospects who share that love and interest. Making money and ROI will follow if you hire people who bring it every day and love what they do. Thanks for taking the time.
yeah.. you’re right Pandora is doing. um… oh well.. you can’t win em all Fred.